The present invention relates to an ink fountain device which supplies ink to a plate cylinder through a fountain roller.
As shown in U.S. Pre-Grant Publication No. 2005/0028693, a conventional ink fountain device comprises a fountain roller rotatably supported between a pair of frames, a blade with a distal end opposing the outer surface of the fountain roller to form a clearance through which ink is supplied to the fountain roller, a plurality of adjustment screws with distal ends abutting against the blade to adjust the clearance between the blade and fountain roller, and a plurality of ink dams which form an ink fountain together with the blade and fountain roller. In the conventional ink fountain device, when the plurality of adjustment screws are operated, the distal end of the blade elastically deforms to move toward or away from the outer surface of the fountain roller. This adjusts the size of the clearance formed between the blade and the outer surface of the fountain roller, to adjust the quantity of ink to be supplied to the fountain roller.
In the conventional ink fountain device, when the rotational speed of the printing press changes, the quantity of ink to be supplied to the fountain roller changes. At the start where the printing press has not reached a predetermined rotational speed yet, the quantity of ink to be supplied to the fountain roller becomes smaller or larger than the regular quantity, and wasted paper is continuously generated until the printing press has reached the predetermined rotational speed. The quantity of ink to be supplied to the fountain roller also changes depending on the type of the ink. When the type of the ink is changed, all the adjustment screws that have already been adjusted must be adjusted again, which takes time.